Teaching Piano With Toilet Paper Rolls

While tidying the girls washroom the other morning I discovered 23 toilet paper rolls tucked in the recesses of the sink cabinet. The good news: my girls change the toilet paper rolls. The bad news: my girls may one day be on an episode of Hoarders.

Either way… I now have 23 toilet paper rolls to put to good use at the piano studio and here is how I intend to make some music magic happen.

5 Toilet Paper Teaching Tips

1. Bird Watching

Glue, tape, or staple two toilet paper rolls together to make a set of bincoulars. Give your piano students the binoculars along with a “Bird”-watching Guide. But instead of birds, have your piano students scan their piano piece for articulation marks or dynamics. Not only will they have a blast, but the binoculars force them to zone in on small sections of the piano piece and really pay attention to all of the little intricacies that make music wonderful.

2. Create Notes On The Staff

Slice a toilet paper roll into a series of rings. These rings can represent noteheads. Next, draw an enlarged staff on a piece of paper and call out note names to your student. Her job is to place a ring (notehead) on the staff to create the called note.

3. Reinforcing Rhythm

Perform the following demonstration with your piano students. Place one toilet paper roll on the floor and tell your piano students to imagine it is a whole note. Take another toilet paper roll, cut it in half and ask your piano students to guess what note each half represents. Place the two halves, below the whole toilet paper roll. Finally, take a toilet paper roll, cut it in half, and then cut each half in half. Ask your piano students to guess what note value each of these pieces represent.

Repeat this demonstration with a single toilet paper roll, naming each of the note values as you cut it in half and then in to quarter.

Ask your student to repeat the demonstration for you as the audience.

4. The Hearing Aid

Explain to your little piano students that the toilet paper roll is in fact a powerful hearing aid. Instruct them to go to a distant corner of the studio, close their eyes and place the toilet paper roll to their ear and listen to the music carefully. Play high sounds/low sounds, soft sounds/ loud sounds, fast sounds/ slow sounds and have your students guess what sound they heard. Sounds simple… but it works!

5. A Toilet Paper Time Capsule

At the beginning of the year, write down 3 goals you would like your piano students to work on. Roll this piece of paper up and put it into a toilet paper roll. Seal each end of the toilet paper roll with a piece of tissue and an elastic. Have your students take the toilet paper roll home and put it under their bed… being sure to leave it untouched until the end of the year. Have your piano students bring their time capsule back before summer break and see how many goals were accomplished.

Share Your Ideas Below

Do you have a crafty toilet paper teaching idea? If so, share it in the comments below. I have 23 toilet paper rolls that need a job to do 🙂

Thanks for the great ideas! I love #4. I will use it with my piano students as well my preschool /kindergarten students. We have been discussing all of these things and they will love using their “hearing aids”!!

I like #1, #4, and #5, too! But, you could also use those longer paper towel rolls and use those as beating out rhythms. Also, you could bring a full toilet paper roll and ask them to tear off however much they want at the beginning of the lesson and then count up the number of squares they tore off to ask them that number of music theory questions throughout the lesson or give them a quiz with the number of squares of toilet paper they tore off! We played this as more of a get to know you game in a group setting, by why not tailor it to music lessons? Just an idea! 🙂

I bought a pack of the least expensive toilet paper I could find for use at a piano party. We used it to demonstrate the difference between “hurky jerky” playing, and smoooooothly letting the music rollllll. Then, since it was Halloween, we mummified a volunteer.

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[…] we reviewed note finding first. I found this great idea to use toilet paper rolls for teaching at Teach Piano Today! Basically I just cut toilet paper rolls into small rings, then they are perfect note heads for […]